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Locals react to Abbott's announcement

Residents of Warringah have different views about Tony Abbott and his intentions after he announces he would be recontesting his seat at the next federal election.

Mr Abbott has penned a lengthy essay for the upcoming edition of conservative journal Quadrant in which he defends his economic performance, saying he was stymied by a "hysterical opposition", "populist Senate crossbench", "poisonous media" and disloyal colleagues. It is the most detailed defence of his government since he was deposed by Malcolm Turnbull last September.

Mr Turnbull seized the prime ministership by claiming the Abbott government had not effectively communicated an economic narrative – an argument Mr Abbott disputes in the essay, an extract of which was published in The Australian.

"I'm confident we could have won the 2016 election": Tony Abbott. Photo: Andrew Meares

"I'm confident we could have won the 2016 election with a program of budget savings and lower tax," Mr Abbott writes.

"The Coalition won the 2013 election despite promising tough measures: to abolish the schoolkids bonus and the low-income supplement, to delay employer-provided superannuation benefits and to reduce Labor's promised funding boost to schools and hospitals beyond the next few years."

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Mr Abbott argues that "the Abbott government squarely faced up to our nation's challenges and did much that will stand the test of time".

Although many commentators regard the 2014 budget as the Abbott government's biggest mistake, Mr Abbott writes: "I regard it more as a badge of honour because it showed that we were serious about long-term budget repair and could therefore be trusted with the long-term economic management of the country."

The 2014 budget included measures not flagged at the previous election including the deregulation of university fees, a new GP co-payment, tough welfare measures for young people and reductions to long-term health and education spending.

Mr Abbott says he fully expected the budget to produce a slump in the polls but that the Australian people would have respected his government for taking tough decisions and re-elected it.

"[M]y strong instinct was that people would accept tough changes, including changes that hadn't explicitly been flagged, because getting the budget under control had been such a big part of our pre-election pitch," he writes.

Mr Abbott argues he did not break many promises in his first budget but that his promise to run a government of "no surprises" had made it difficult to sell unpopular changes.

Mr Abbott notes it was "claimed on September 14 [by Mr Turnbull] that the government lacked an economic narrative".

"In fact, the government's economic narrative had been clear from the beginning – lower taxes, less regulation and higher productivity – but that necessarily meant getting debt and deficit under control by responsibly restraining government spending: by cutting it where necessary, by refraining from increasing it where possible and by striving in all areas to reduce its rate of growth."

Mr Abbott intends to remain in Parliament following the next election as the member for Warringah.